


Lovefool

by islndgurl777



Series: give michael guerin a friend 2k19 (make that friend maria deluca) [12]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Bisexual Characters, Multi, lots of introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 22:17:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18536563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islndgurl777/pseuds/islndgurl777
Summary: Five times one of them realizes they have feelings for another one of them, plus one time Max realizes he's bi and likes Kyle.





	Lovefool

**Author's Note:**

> This one takes place in the same universe as my series "give michael guerin a friend 2k19 (make that friend maria deluca)", but it has nothing to do with Michael so I'm not connecting it to the series. You don't have to have read them to read this. However, there is a little bit of crossover, so if you want to read just those ones, they are "Heart-Shaped Box", "Two Princes", and "True to Your Heart." That last one deals a lot with Max's realization that he's bi.
> 
> Edit 6/28/19: I don't want to make a different series for stories that are still in the same 'verse, so I'm just adding it to the series.
> 
> AU after 1x10. Unbeta'd. Title from The Cardigans

**1 (Max and Liz)**

 

Max Evans has loved Liz Ortecho for as long as he can remember. He’s loved her since before he really knew what love was, and when he did know, he had no hesitation calling it that. He loves her and always will.

 

When he hears her swearing a blue streak at him from through her window at the stop on the way into town, his heart soars. He can take a full breath for the first time in ten years, even as she chews him out for stopping her for being Latina.

 

He needs to see her again, even if he can’t be with her, even with all of the secrets and lies and the horrible atrocities his family has committed against hers. He wants to take a full breath again, just one more time, so he goes to see her at the Crashdown after it’s closed.

 

He can’t breathe at all in the time between when she gets shot and when he finishes healing her.

 

/

 

He tells her again and again how much she means to him, can’t seem to stop himself babbling about it actually, but she still doesn’t trust him. She finds out about what Isobel did and how he and Michael covered it up, destroying her sister in the process, and he hates himself more than he ever has for putting that look on her face. For failing to save Rosa. For not considering the consequences of putting her in the driver’s seat.

 

For creating the circumstances under which Liz looks at him like she does when she tells him she never wants to see him again.

 

He loves her, but he has never deserved her and he never will.

 

/

 

She uses his blood to create a serum that will incapacitate an alien, and even if it’s the thing of all of their nightmares, he can’t blame her. Michael’s angrier and more scared than Max has ever seen him, but he can feel Isobel’s relief. He’s scared too, and maybe a little angry, but he’s also relieved Liz has a way to protect herself against Isobel if she blacks out again, because he’s not sure he could hurt his sister to protect her.

 

It’s a moot point because Isobel tricks Kyle Valenti into injecting her with the untested serum and it starts killing her almost instantly.

 

Liz works tirelessly for weeks to create an antidote and save the woman who killed her sister, and he is in awe of her. He doesn’t know if he’d be able to be objective were the situations reversed, and he knows she struggles with remaining impartial, but she carries on anyways.

 

He loves and admires her even more for not allowing her feelings to come in the way of doing what’s right.

 

/

 

She kisses him, and saves Isobel’s life, and they learn Isobel is not responsible for Rosa’s death.

 

Despite not knowing who the serial killer is, he doesn’t think he’s ever been happier.

 

**2 (Kyle and Liz)**

 

He’s known Liz all his life. They went to school together, grew up together, had the same group of friends up through middle school. Back in high school, it had seemed kind of perfect. Destined. It was a cheesy idea, but friends to high school sweethearts to college sweethearts seemed pretty inevitable.

 

Then he’d gone and screwed all that up by being a homophobic asshole.

 

Which: fair. Now that he’s matured, seen more of world than just his small town, educated himself, he realizes what a dick he’d been back then. Definitely not worthy of a girl like Liz.

 

That doesn’t stop him from...reconnecting with her when she gets back into town ten years after Rosa’s death.

 

That doesn’t stop him from trying to help her find out which alien killed her sister.

 

/

 

He finds out Rosa was his sister too, and he’s trying to figure out the right way to tell Liz. How do you tell a good friend that their mother cheated on their father, so her sister was his sister too? 

 

Just when he thinks he’s found the right way to do it, she tells him Isobel Evans was the one who killed Rosa and he wants to rage. He wants to make her suffer like Rosa suffered. But.

 

He’s not that guy anymore, who lashes out and hurts others when he’s been hurt. He’s a doctor. He took an oath, and he’s not about to break it, no matter what Jesse Manes says about the aliens in Roswell.

 

That first feeling of rage is what allows Isobel to... _ incept _ him to dose her with Liz’s serum. He feels sick about it, knowing his ugly thoughts still have real, outside world consequences. Especially when he sees the look on Liz’s face when she realizes what her serum is doing to Isobel. His brief feeling of rage allowed Isobel to manipulate him into using Liz’s work to hurt, and he hates himself for the blame she feels.

 

/

 

Liz and Guerin figure it out after a month and a half, and a lot of the tension he’s been holding on to, waiting to make sure Liz won’t blame herself for killing Isobel, drains. She can inject Isobel any time, knowing she’ll be okay.

 

He’s pissed at himself for suggesting she hold on to it for a little while, because he’s afraid, despite his assertion it’s because Isobel may have killed other people, some of his hostile feelings towards Isobel are to blame.

 

He doesn’t want to revert to that hostile, ugly guy anymore.

 

/

 

After the alien craziness dies down, he starts spending more time with Liz, in and out of her lab. They get lunch in the hospital cafeteria as often as their schedules allow. They get to know each other again as adults, as old friends. She invites him out with the group and makes sure to always include him in conversations. She invites him out just the two of them to watch movies or discuss recent medical discoveries. He finds he enjoys spending time with her much more now that they’re grown than he had when they were kids. They’re more open with each other, more honest. Theirs is probably the healthiest friendship he’s had in years.

 

She’s the most vibrant, hilarious, insanely smart and devastatingly beautiful woman he knows. He’s in love with her, but she’s dating Max, and he’s always been the better man between the two of them, so he keeps quiet and revels in being her friend again.

 

**3 (Liz and Max)**

 

She’s always liked Max. When he first came to school, he was shy and wouldn’t talk to anyone in their class. His sister was in a different class, and they spent every lunch period and recess huddled together on the edge of the playground. Liz, who understood wanting to be with your sister when you were scared, did  _ not _ understand wanting your sister to be your only friend, so she took it upon herself to approach him the next time their teacher assigned them partner work. That was all it took for him to become one of her friends.

 

He was always there for her as they grew up. Lab partners in Biology, study partners in European History. Shoulder to lean on after a disastrous prom date and almost-fling during an illicit afternoon of shirking their academic responsibilities.

 

The roller coaster of emotions she rides for him when she comes back to town ten years after Rosa’s death almost gives her whiplash. She’d wanted so badly for her memory of that perfect, quiet boy to remain untarnished, and she’s pissed as hell at herself when she finds out he’s not who she thought he was.

 

Shame on her for believing it for even one second.

 

/

 

She and Michael work evenings, after her normal lab hours are over, to find a cure for Isobel. She spends hours every night mixing compounds, desperate to find a way to save her.

 

She knows intimately what a horrible experience it is to live through, losing your sister, and she doesn’t want Max to have to watch Isobel die. She also doesn’t want to be the reason anyone dies, even if that person killed Rosa.

 

Though, the longer she has to think, the less angry she becomes at Max and the others. Of course she’s angry her sister’s legacy is that of a drug addict who killed herself and two other girls with her habit. But they’d been kids, all of them, and Max, Michael, and Isobel in a more dangerous situation than she could probably ever conceive. She doesn’t know if she would have made the same choices in their place, but she does know she’d have done damn near anything to protect her sister, so she can’t find it in herself to continue to blame Max for doing the same.

 

She tells him as much approximately twelve hours before she kisses him on the hill outside the aliens’ cave, changing their relationship forever.

 

/

 

They date. Finally. They get so wrapped up in each other, she accidentally shirks some friend duties again, though Maria strikes up an unlikely friendship with Michael after Texas, which leads to her being read in on the alien secret.

 

She starts spending time with Isobel, pleased to get to know her now that she knows she’s not responsible for Rosa’s death, eager to integrate herself into as much of Max’s life as she can. Her friendship with Michael also continues to blossom as they argue science and science-fiction on a regular basis. She introduces Max to her father as her boyfriend, delighting Max and shocking exactly no one else, given the amount of time they’ve been spending together around town.

 

Things are going well until she yells out a distracted confession of love as she runs out the door one night, not realizing what she’s done until minutes later.

 

When she sees him the next morning, his eyes hold a quiet joy she’s not seen in them before. She walks up to him, wraps her arms around his neck, and whispers it again, holding their foreheads together for a long moment in the quiet of his kitchen.

 

Then things are perfect.

 

**4 (Kyle and Max)**

 

Kyle has known he likes men since college. Well, he probably knew before that, and that was probably part of why he was such a dick to Alex in high school, if he’s being totally honest with himself. But his first sexual experience with a man happened in college, so that’s when he says he realized he was bi if he’s feeling shitty enough to lie to himself about it.

 

Even before he really knew Max, he had no problem admitting to himself the man was hot. It was easy enough to draw that conclusion when he saw him on a semi-regular basis once he got back into town and took to visiting his mom at work occasionally. Growing up with his entire family in law enforcement should have given him an immunity to a uniform kink, but somehow that doesn’t apply when it comes to Max Evans.

 

When he finds out Max is an alien, that doesn’t stop him from thinking the guy is hot; he just has first hand experience with the ‘mark me down as scared and horny’ meme.

 

/

 

He’s joking, of course. He might have been scared when he first found out, but as he learns more about them--when he sees Max nearly kill himself to get power to the generator at the hospital--he’s not frightened. Even when he learns Isobel was the one who killed Rosa, he’s not afraid of Max. How could he be, when he knows Max was willing to gamble his and his siblings’ lives to save Liz?

 

He’s only a little exasperated when he asks Alex, “Is everyone in love with Max Evans?” because he can understand the appeal.

 

/

 

He spends time with Liz because she’s one of his best and oldest friends, and because he loves her. When she starts getting more serious with Max, he starts spending time with them both.

 

They go to the occasional movie, but mostly they hang out at the Crashdown or at Max’s and talk over food. He and Liz are good at including Max in their arguments, and they all have a lot to discuss regarding Liz’s discoveries about alien biology. But sometimes he and Max will go off on a tangent about the best American authors of the early 20th century, or they’ll argue about the best and worst plays in the most recent UNM game. Once, they start exchanging ideas about a cake recipe Max is working on to surprise Isobel for their Gotcha Day, delighting Liz to no end.

 

At some point, he grows comfortable driving up to Max’s house just to hang out with him, even when he knows Liz won’t be there. He finds Max calming to be around because there are no expectations, and Max doesn’t hold his past against him. He’s tired of always being on edge, trying to prove he’s not the boy he was ten years ago. Max knows what that’s like and allows him to relax a little and just be.

 

/

 

The three of them are at the Wild Pony, Max and Liz leaning against each other on the opposite side of the booth from him, when Maria brings them all drinks. They exchange pleasantries, but Kyle does not miss the way Maria’s eyes keep flicking between him and the couple he’s sitting with, speculation in her eyes. She leaves to go back to the bar, but before she does, she tells them to be safe and have fun. An innocuous enough statement on its own, but she looks at Kyle pointedly and winks before she sashays away, and a sick feeling settles in his gut. He looks across the table at Max and Liz, who are grinning at each other as they lock eyes, and he feels invisible next to their love. There’s a heavy feeling in his chest as he looks at them, and he can’t pinpoint why until Max’s eyes break from Liz’s to lock with his.

 

His heart sinks as he comes to the realization he’s in love with two people who are in love with each other.

 

**5 (Liz and Kyle)**

 

The more time Liz spends with Kyle, the more she remembers what drew her to him back in high school. He’s smart. Because they have similar enough degrees, they are each able to hold their own in arguments about new finds in the medical field. A thrill runs through her every time she’s able to make his ears turn red in frustration when she argues him into a corner.

 

He’s also charismatic. There’s an ease to the way he carries himself and the way he talks that leaves no doubt in a person’s mind that Kyle Valenti knows what he’s doing. Even through all the craziness that came with learning about aliens, which she can admit left her a little unsure to begin with, he always seemed to take it all in stride.

 

His incredible good looks don’t hurt either.

 

She also sees how he’s changed since high school, and those changes draw her in now. He’s grown compassionate. She’d been somewhat aware of his cliched asshole jock persona back then, though she’d never known the extent of it until senior prom. Now, he’s apologized to Alex and they’re becoming friends again. When Isobel had been sick, he’d taken care of her, even thinking she’d killed Rosa. It’s a refreshing change from the boy he used to be.

 

He’s also grown more thoughtful, and less prone to acting without thinking. The old Kyle might have immediately lashed out in anger about Rosa, but this Kyle takes his time evaluating his feelings and considering what is right before he acts. He works hard to be a better person, consciously making choices that might go against his gut instincts so his better sense prevails.

 

Liz truly admires the person Kyle has become and makes an effort to show him she values him among her group of friends.

 

/

 

She asks Kyle to help her and Michael with a  _ special alien biology problem _ and is reminded of what an asshole he can be when he sasses her about checking up on that kind of stuff  _ before _ she started sleeping with Max.

 

Still, working together pays off because they end up collecting a lot of information about the aliens’ DNA and make a great start on figuring out how their biology is compatible with humans’. She thinks about asking Kyle to help out again, but he’d been super weird about it by the end of their first session, declining her offer of dinner, despite having come over for dinner with her and Max numerous times before. Michael swears up and down he isn’t the reason Kyle balked and left so quickly, but he’s also weirdly evasive about telling her his theory about Kyle’s abrupt departure, citing she’d figure it out on her own eventually.

 

That doesn’t seem likely.

 

/

 

Kyle likes her. Like, he  _ likes _ her, likes her. They’re twenty-nine years old and she’s having flashbacks to high school, when Kyle would look at her with those big brown eyes, smiling that adorable dimpled smile and flirting with her during their lunch period.

 

She comes to this realization, unsurprisingly, when they’re having their usual lunch in the cafeteria at the hospital, arguing over the results of a medical study he’d forwarded her the night before. He’s leaning toward her across the table, eyes shining with mirth as he eggs her on, wearing that same flirty smile from high school, but that’s not what gets her.

 

What gets her is, when she leans forward, unable to contain her smile, she uncrosses her legs under the table and accidentally knocks her foot into his. She apologizes in the middle of her sentence and he waves it off just as quickly, but his ears and the edges of his cheekbones start turning red, and that’s how she knows.

 

Kyle Valenti likes her.

 

Her heart starts pounding wildly and she resists the urge to shake her head to clear it, all the while cataloguing her own feelings about this. She’s pretty sure she  _ like _ likes him back.

 

Fuck.

 

**+1 (Max and Kyle)**

 

“I love you. You know that, right?” Liz sounds nervous, and that puts Max on edge immediately.

 

“Yes?” he says, drawing the word out as he places a bookmark on the page he was in the middle of reading and setting the book down on the coffee table in front of him. “Do you maybe want to sit down?” he asks, scooting over so she can have room to sit next to him but still have a little space if she wants it.

 

She shakes her head and starts pacing in front of him. “No, I need to walk while I talk about this, I think.”

 

He swallows hard and leans forward, clenching his hands in front of himself to keep from reaching for her. “And what is this?”

 

She stops pacing and turns to face him, arms crossed in front of her stomach. She’s quiet for an agonizingly long time before she says slowly, “Have you ever had feelings for multiple people at the same time?” He opens his mouth to deny it automatically, emphatically, but she holds up a hand. “I don’t want you to tell me what you think I want to hear. I want you to think about it and tell me the truth.”

 

His mouth snaps shut and he stares at her, eyes wide. Because he loves Liz and he will always love Liz, but lately he’s been thinking...maybe she’s not the only person he has those kinds of feelings for? But he’s not sure, because he’s never felt this way about a guy before. Well, technically, he’s never felt this way about anyone but Liz before, and he doesn’t quite know what that means. He knows he can’t for sure say no to her question though, so he answers with an uncertain, “Maybe?”

 

She nods and lets out an unsteady breath, moving to sit next to him on the couch and take his hand in hers. He’s relieved that she looks less nervous when she says, “Thank you.” After they sit quietly for a moment to digest that she continues, “Me too.”

 

Max nods slowly, his heart skipping beats. He wants to ask when, but he’s pretty sure she was speaking in the present tense, and he wants to ask who, but he’s not sure he’s prepared for the answer, for multiple reasons. He’s also not sure he’s prepared to answer in kind, which is the real reason he says, voice rough, “Can we put a pause on this conversation? I just… am not ready to talk about it yet? I still have a few things I need to think about.”

 

She makes a noise like she wants to object, but squeezes his hand and nods. “Of course. Take all the time you need.”

 

/

 

He talks to Michael a few nights later about how he knew he was bisexual, and it answers some of his questions while raising still more. He feels anxious and unsure, but he knows Liz has been waiting rather impatiently to continue their conversation. He’s been trying to figure out the best way to bring it up again, but he ends up blurting it out over their pasta dinner one night. “It’s Kyle.”

 

She stops mid-chew and looks up at him, eyes wide. “Wh--” she says, mouth full. Then she holds up a finger for him to wait, finishes her bite, and takes a drink of her wine before she says, “What?”

 

He takes a deep breath, measuring his words a little more precisely this time. “The person I like, at the same time I like you, is Kyle.”

 

Her smile grows and her eyes turn a little shiny. “Me too.”

 

He nods and reaches across the table to hold her hand. “I wasn’t sure if it...if I was even...you know?” he says, squeezing her hand, and she nods. “But then I talked to Michael, and he sent me some links and…” he shrugs.

 

“And it helped you figure some things out?” she asks softly.

 

“Yeah,” he says. “I just...he’s so kind? And patient, and funny, and kind of an asshole, but in a hilarious way? But he’s also so well-read and smart, and just...compassionate? I mean, did you ever think that jerk jock from high school would grow up to be so...good?” His voice gets louder and his words start coming faster. Liz smiles a little and nods in agreement. “And he’s just so incredibly good looking!” he blurts.

 

She giggles and says, “I know, right? Those cheekbones!”

 

“And the stubble? Who gave him the right?”

 

Liz fights her smile and says seriously, “Your stubble is hot too.”

 

Max scowls and says, “Don’t patronize me, I know his facial hair is way hotter than mine.”

 

She sighs happily and leans across the table to place her free hand on his face, thumb stroking his substandard stubble fondly. “I love you.”

 

He turns his head to kiss her palm. “I love you too.”

 

They sit like that for a time, staring into each others’ eyes and assimilating recent revelations. “Anything else you want to get off your chest?” she finally asks, pulling her free hand back, running her thumb across his lips as she does so.

 

“I--” He stops and shakes his head, unsure. But he looks up and Liz is smiling at him, and his heart grows three sizes inside his chest. He can trust her with anything. “Michael also sent me some links about polyamory,” he tells her.

 

She rolls her eyes as she squeezes his hand, still smiling. “Of course he did. He probably sent you an annotated list, didn’t he? That nerd.” Max shrugs and she continues, “Is that something you’d want?”

 

He’d been nervous to bring it up, but now that the whole conversation has gone so incredibly well, he’s confident when he says, “Yes.”

 

He’s elated when she nods and says, “Okay. Let’s talk about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I have never written a triad before, or M/M, so this was really freaking hard to write. Also, a lot of the gushing Liz and Max do about how hot Kyle is stems directly from how hot I think Trevino is. I'm pretty sure my roommate is sick of hearing me yell about his ridiculous hotness so I had to let it out somewhere... Hope you liked it!


End file.
